M-Theory Audio recently released the second album, and first for M-Theory Audio, from VERNI.  If that name sounds familiar it is the solo project of legendary bassist DD Verni, better known as the bassist and a founding member of thrash metal legends OVERKILL.  DD has held the bottom-end of OVERKILL for four decades and been key in writing the band’s material and overseeing much of their business over the years. VERNI gives DD the chance to step more into the spotlight and express himself without limitations.

Capital Chaos TV: How familiar are you with Sacramento?

DD Verni: Where’s the, where do we usually play? There’s a place called Ace of Spades or Ace of Clubs.

Capital Chaos TV: Ace of Spades is a place that you’ve played here.

DD Verni: Yeah. Ok. That’s what I’m familiar with in Sacramento.

Capital Chaos TV: A tall stage, low ceiling, makes it a little difficult for, bands such as Overkill with large backdrops.

DD Verni: Yeah. Well, you know, sometimes it’s, we usually try to carry, a multitude of things so that wherever we go in because, you know, that’s the thing with Overkill is like, you know, sometimes we’re in a room one night, that’s 2500. The next time we’re in a place that’s 800. So, we have to be prepared for both.

Capital Chaos TV: I think the first time I saw you was, you had Excel as the opening band, or the band that you were touring with, and you played the Omni, and I believe you brought your own drum riser, and it was a massive thing too. Do you recall that tour with that drum riser?

DD Verni: Uh, we have a pretty big drum riser that we carry with us most times. Uh, I don’t know if I remember the Omni, exactly. But, yeah, like I said, we carry a lot of stuff with us. We’re kind of prepared for most anything, almost any kind of room that we walk into.

Capital Chaos TV: You’ve always been a big production band?

DD Verni: It’s one of the things that I like the best. It’s one of the funnist things is that, you know, we always try to bring in as much as we possibly can; don’t leave anything in the truck, and, you know, just bring in your amps. Oh, we’ll just play the songs. It’s like, that’s not enough; you know, we can do better than that. We’re a metal band, you know, to try to bring in as much lighting and staging and props and, you know, make it interesting and fun.

Capital Chaos TV: What can we expect from Overkill production wise on the upcoming bigger venue, U.S. tour supporting King Diamond?

DD Verni: Uh, we got some surprises on that we’ll be carrying; you know, we’re supporting that so we can’t bring in, you know, as much as we would normally like, and King Diamond’s got a massive production. So, you know, whatever room that left, after they put their stuff up, that’s where you live. I mean, you’re a support band, but we’ll be, as we always do, carrying as much as we can possibly fit. And for the room and the time that we have

Capital Chaos TV: What drives you to continue to create?

DD Verni: You know, I don’t know. I think it’s just a thing that is different for everybody. I know for me it’s; I have friends sometimes that I’ll talk to them and they’re kind of out of ideas or they’re just not inspired to do something or they’re just kind of burnt out or, you know, they’re like, records don’t sell anymore, you know. But I don’t know, for me that is just kind of compelled to write songs. I am always writing twelve months a year. I don’t ever stop it; I’m always in the studio; I always have a guitar in my hands or a recorder, or, I’m just, I like it. I enjoy writing songs, whether they be for, a solo band or Overkill, or, I have a swing band that I play in, and, I’m always writing songs, jotting down notes for song titles, and humming melodies. You know, I think it’s just a lot of years of doing it. I’m just used to it, and really, I just have fun doing it.

Capital Chaos TV: That’s a beautiful thing to be constantly inspired.

DD Verni: Yeah, I, mean, it is. It just seems so normal for me, but, you know, then again, I’m always looking too, like I always have the radio on, I buy every new record, I listen to every new band, or anything. Sometimes it’ll be an old record. Like, I just found out about Oasis, like, maybe two years ago. And, you know, that band’s been broken up, and now they’re back together, and they’re just coming onto my radar. So, there’s always, you know, new music, even if it’s old music for me. And I’m always looking for something because it’s just inspiring to hear, something new and different. Say, wow, that’s, you know, just great. It just inspires you to wanna do something great as well.

Capital Chaos TV: How about a jingle or something that, uh, inspires you and makes you go grab your bass and learn it?

DD Verni: It depends usually when I start kind of listening to music a lot, then my brain kind of ramps up. There’s a lot of times I come down, uh, right in the morning, and before I even have coffee, I’m right into my office and pick up a recorder to hum something that I have. Or sometimes I’ll have to get out of bed, come all the way downstairs, get my recorder, and because it’s just something that’s too good that I don’t want to let go. And it kind of usually goes in stages, usually, like at the end of a record I’m a little dried up. And so then for a few months, things are kind of slow, but then, you know, things start, clearing out of your head a little bit, and new ideas start to come in and new music starts to come in, and then everything starts going again. And I’m just grateful I have outlets for it all to get out because if it all had to stay in my head all the time, I’d probably go crazy.

Capital Chaos TV: Which part of the process do you like and dislike the most?

DD Verni: I really like writing songs. I used to like performing better than anything. But I still like performing a lot, but I really like writing songs and being in the studio. That’s one of them; that’s probably my favorite thing right now. I really enjoy doing it. And the thing that I’ve always liked the least is writing lyrics. I like writing melodies. But I never really liked writing lyrics, but on this new, solo record that I did, I really, probably for one of the first times, really enjoyed writing lyrics, because they weren’t so serious, you know, I could have fun on a lot of them that the records of literally punk rock records. And, so it was just, it was a lot of tongue in cheek stuff. Stuff that would make me laugh while I was writing it, you know, cool little twists and turns, and it was one of the first times I did actually have fun writing lyrics.

Capital Chaos TV: What took you down this, punk, approach to this third record?

DD Verni: I think it’s been for a long time. I always wanted to do kind of more of a punk rock record. I grew up in the seventies listening to punk rock, you know, The Ramones and the Pistols, the Dead Boys/ Misfits, you know, that whole punk scene and CBGBS and Max Kansas City and all that stuff. I was part of that with the original punk band. I was in a punk band before I was in Overkill. And, so I always had a love for punk, and there’s a lot of punk in Overkill too, but to have a whole record where I could really just have that punk rock energy and those melodies and the big sing-along stuff. It was a lot of fun to kind of visit all those old kinds of ideas and bands that I used to listen to and just kind of live in that world for a little while doing this record.

Capital Chaos TV: Talk a little bit about “The Whore with The See-Thru Shoes” and how she came to be.

DD Verni: Everybody loves that title. I get every single, every single interview that I do. I say it was just a funny story, about, an old girlfriend or whatever. Yeah, seeing some girl on the side of the stage with, big pumps on, with clear glass shoes on, you know, who’s that whore with the see thru shoes? And just kind of always stuck with me. I just thought it was a kind of funny way to describe somebody, and, I just remembered it and had it written down. We used to sing it in the dressing room and here and there just as a fucking goof. But I had to jot it down as a song title, and it just kind of came to fruition, and this record,

Capital Chaos TV: Jason Bittner played on the new solo record. Were you surprised when he announced his exit from Overkill?

DD Verni: No, we kind of knew that that was coming. He had told us a while ago that he was just kind of burned out on too many things and had his hands in too many pots. So, I think, we kind of knew that was coming.

Capital Chaos TV: Well, it’s nice to see he left on good terms and not some sort of drama.

DD Verni: Yeah, it was nothing like that. He didn’t leave us hanging. You know, he finished out his commitments with us. He was supposed to do this European tour, but he couldn’t; he ended up not being able to do that, which worked out, because we have Jeremy now in the band and he’s going to do the King Diamond tour with us. And, so it it all ended up working out.

Capital Chaos TV: Which bands from the early days were you surprised did make it? And surprised didn’t make it.

DD Verni: I was always surprised Saxon wasn’t bigger. I thought that Saxon should have been Iron Maiden, or just as big. They did really well and still do really well, and they’re just such a fucking unique and great band from back in the day.  I thought that they would have been, you know, gigantic. The band probably, I’m surprised, got as big as they did was Slayer. I thought Slayer, you know, out of all the bands would be like, especially back when they first started off with being so demonic and it was so heavy and to see them get like so big and, kind of mainstream big, you know, it’s like, wow, I wouldn’t have expected that Slayer was going to be that big.

Capital Chaos TV: If it wasn’t for music, what would you be doing for a living? And what other aspirations did you have as a youth before turning to music?

DD Verni: I think when I was really young, I wanted to play on the New York Giants. That wasn’t going to happen because I’m a pretty little guy. But I’ve really only wanted to do two things in my entire life, and that was one, to be a professional athlete, and the other, to be a musician. I didn’t aspire really to do anything else. Those are the two things I loved. And probably somewhere around the middle of high school when I knew I wasn’t going to be big enough to be able to compete in sports like that. I started to gravitate towards music, and there was just no other career path for me. I wound up not going to college so that I could pursue music. I just put everything I had into it, it was either that or sink. So, it’s good it worked out.

Capital Chaos TV: What artist has inspired you the most?

DD Verni: What artists, you know, it changes like all the time as new artists come up. Back in the day when I was first starting off, it was mostly Kiss, as a kid, just like, you know, larger than life, everything that they did was just so unbelievable. And Sabbath I really love too. So inspiring, back, you know, when I was first starting off, but then even along the way I go to see bands, like I saw Green Day a little while ago and they just absolutely blew me away. They’re just so good at what they do. You know, it’s inspiring to see the songwriters so good just at the top of their game and what they’re doing, or even like a newer band that I didn’t even know that well, I went to see Ghost a little while ago. Actually, I went to see Volbeat, who was playing with Ghost, who I love. I was familiar with them and I love them, but I didn’t really know much about Ghost, and I said, I’ll stick around for a few songs. But then I wound up staying the whole show because I was just like, so blown away. Like, wow, what an unbelievably great band. So, I don’t know, there’s a lot of things you never know when you’re going to see something that, you know, inspires you or blows you away. It just depends. I try to go see as many shows as I can.

Capital Chaos TV: Thanks for the chat, and thanks for all the years of great music. Do you have any final thoughts or words of advice for any aspiring artists?

DD Verni: I would tell them not to listen to old guys like me because most of them are jaded and angry and, that they should follow their own ideas and their own path. I know like a lot of, people will say, you guys, you guys made it; you made a career out of it. Can you give us any advice? It’s like, you know, you guys are going to know better just like, when we first started out, we got signed by major labels, like Atlantic and, and they knew that we knew better than them because we were tied into the scene and we were plugged in. So now with these younger bands with social media and all that stuff, I would say, just follow, you guys, you know better than we ever did with right now about what’s going on. So just follow that.

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Categories: Interviews, Verni

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